[Distutils] easy_install and sys.path

[Tres Seaver]

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Bryan Lawrence wrote:
> Hi Phillip 
> 
> Thanks for this.
> 
> For the record it seems that debian has patched the site.py to include 
> the /usr/local tree (and hence all the ubuntu family have this as well).
> 
> So, it would appear for Debian  it isn't possible to have your own python 
> in /usr/local at the same version as the system python on a debian system ... 
> and expect them to be independent. Damn. I appear to have got away with this 
> in the past because either a) I've had a different version, or b) I haven't 
> had eggs (or both).
> 
> Obviously there are ways around this, one of which you've outlined below 
> (again, thanks), but it's not very tidy (which you can translate as me not 
> understanding why they've done this, not complaining about easy_install :-)

It would appear that their justification is that
'/usr/local/lib/python2.x' is where they expect non-packaged extensions
to be placed;  never mind that there is no facility within Python itself
to install such extensions into that place.

Essentially, if you want to install a different Python than
/usr/bin/python2.x on a Debian box, you need to put it somewhere besides
'/usr/local' (e.g., perhaps '/opt/somename').

I would class this as a bug in the Debian packaging of Python, but have
no intention of arguing with them about the correctness of their choice.
 One thing you might try is to have a 'sitecustomize.py' which removed
the '/usr/local' entries from sys.path;  that appears to be the "last"
hook point available.


Tres.
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Tres Seaver          +1 540-429-0999          tseaver at palladion.com
Palladion Software   "Excellence by Design"    http://palladion.com
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